International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) launched

The Prime Minister said India did not believe in the conflict between ecology and economy but gave importance to coexistence between the two. The protection of wildlife is a universal issue launching the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) which endeavors to protect and conserve big cats.

More about the news:

1.  The Prime Minister after inaugurating the program for ‘Commemoration of 50 years of Project Tiger’ organized at Karnataka State Open University.
2. It cited the data that showed the tiger population in India stood at 3,167 in 2022. According to the data, the tiger population was 1,411 in 2006, 1,706 in 2010, 2,226 in 2014, 2,967 in 2018, and 3,167 in 2022.
3. The Prime Minister said the success of ‘Project Tiger’ is a matter of pride for India and the whole world.

About IBCA:

• In July 2019, the Prime Minister called for an Alliance of Global Leaders to obliterate demand and firmly curb poaching and illegal wildlife trade in Asia.
• IBCA will focus on protecting and conservating seven major big cats of the world such as tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar, and cheetah, with a range of countries harboring these species being its members.
• The Sahyadri or Western Ghats have several tribal communities, that have worked for wildlife and tigers to flourish, and their contribution to conservation efforts is laudable.

‘Protecting nature is part of the culture:

• He said that India has not only saved tigers, but created an ecosystem for them to flourish, and protecting wildlife was not an issue of just one country, but a global one.
• He points out that cheetahs had become extinct in India decades ago, and the big cats were brought to India from Namibia and South Africa, which is the first successful transcontinental translocation of the big cat.
• India has completed 75 years of independence, and 75% of the world’s tiger population is in India. The tiger reserve in India is 75,000 sq km, in the last 10-12 years; the tiger population has also increased by 75%.

About species richness:

• India with just 2.4% of the world’s land area, contributes about 8 percent of the known global diversity.
• It is the largest tiger range country in the world. With nearly 30,000 elephants, we are the world’s largest Asiatic elephant range country.
• Our rhino population of nearly 3,000 makes us the largest single-horned rhino country in the world.”
• India is the only country to have Asiatic lions, and their population has increased from around 525 in 2015 to 675 in 2020.
• The leopard population is up by 60% in a span of four years. India added over 2,200 square kilometers of forest and tree cover by 2021 in comparison to 2019 figures.
• In a decade, the number of national parks and sanctuaries around which eco-sensitive zones were notified, increased from 9 to 468.

 Fifty years of ‘Project Tiger

The number of tigers in India has increased by 6.74 percent from 2,967 in 2018 to 3,167 in 2022, according to the figures of the 5th cycle of India’s Tiger Census, which was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event in Karnataka’s Mysuru to mark 50 years of ‘Project Tiger’. The PM also released the government’s vision for tiger conservation during ‘Amrit Kaal’, and launched the International Big Cats Alliance (IBCA). IBCA will focus on the protection and conservation of seven major big cats of the world, including tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar, and cheetah, with a membership of the range countries harboring these species.

What is Project Tiger?

1. Project Tiger was launched by the Central government on 1 April 1973, in a bid to promote the conservation of the tiger. The program came at a time when India’s tiger population was rapidly dwindling.
2. According to reports, while there were 40,000 tigers in the country at the time of the Independence, they were soon reduced to below 2,000 by 1970 due to their widespread hunting and poaching.
3. Concerns around the issue further intensified when the same year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature declared the tiger an endangered species. Two years later, the Indian government conducted its tiger census and found that there were only 1,800 of them left in the country.
4. To tackle the problem of hunting and poaching not just tigers but also other animals and birds, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi promulgated the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972.
5. A year later, after a task force urged the government to create a chain of reserves dedicated to tiger preservation, India unveiled Project Tiger.
6. Launched at the Jim Corbett National Park, the program was initially started in nine tiger reserves of different States such as Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, covering over 14,000 sq km.
7. Today, there are 54 tiger reserves across India, spanning 75,000 sq km. As mentioned before, the current population of tigers in the country stands at 3,167 as opposed to 1,411 in 2006, 1,706 in 2010, and 2,226 in 2014.

AAP is now the national party

The Election Commission recognized the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a national party while revoking the status of the All India Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Communist Party of India (CPI).

More about the news:

• The BJP, Congress, CPI (M), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), National People’s Party (NPP), and the AAP are the remaining national parties now.
• The Commission revoked the state party status granted to RLD in Uttar Pradesh, BRS in Andhra Pradesh, PDA in Manipur, PMK in Puducherry, RSP in West Bengal, and MPC in Mizoram.
• The Commission said that NCP and Trinamool Congress will be recognized as state parties in Nagaland and Meghalaya respectively based on their performance in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
• It also granted “recognized state political party” status to the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) in Nagaland, the Voice of the People Party in Meghalaya, and the Tipra Motha in Tripura.

A national party:

• It would have a presence ‘nationally’, as opposed to a regional party whose presence is restricted to only a particular state or region.
• They are usually India’s bigger parties, such as the Congress and BJP.
• Some parties, despite being dominant in a major state — such as the DMK in Tamil Nadu, BJD in Odisha, YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh, RJD in Bihar, or TRS in Telangana — and having a major say in national affairs, remain regional parties.
• The ECI has laid down the technical criterion for a party to be recognized as a national party. A party may gain or lose national party status from time to time, depending on the fulfillment of these laid-down conditions.

As per the EC I’s Political Parties and Election Symbols, 2019 handbook, a political party would be considered a national party if:

• It is ‘recognized’ in four or more states; or
• If its candidates polled at least 6% of total valid votes in any four or more states in the last Lok Sabha or Assembly elections and has at least four MPs in the last Lok Sabha polls; or
• If it has won at least 2% of the total seats in the Lok Sabha from not less than three states.

To be recognized as a state party, a party needs:

• At least 6% vote-share in the last Assembly election and have at least 2 MLAs; or
• It should have a 6% vote share in the last Lok Sabha elections from that state and at least one MP from that state; or
• At least 3% of the total number of seats or three seats, whichever is more, in the last Assembly elections;
• At least one MP for every 25 members or any fraction allotted to the state in the Lok Sabha; or
• It should have at least 8% of the total valid votes in the last Assembly election or Lok Sabha election from the state.

Relationship between biodiversity loss and human health

Animals, plants, fungi — biodiversity holds a treasure trove of chemicals that can be used to treat diseases from malaria to cancer. Its loss is driving species to extinction, dashing many hopes for medicine.

More about the news:

• Bright reds, yellows, and blues — the color of poison dart frogs offer a stark warning to curious predators. The amphibians are toxic. For humans, these colors mean something more hopeful.
• The poisonous chemicals could provide the key to medications that treat infections now resistant to the antibiotics we have already developed. They have important medical compounds that are good anesthetics.

The basis for much-needed medicine:

• Natural compounds found in frogs, plants, and many other species provide the basis for many of our medicines.
• Examples such as Paclitaxel, a drug used to treat cancer, is derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, and ziconotide, a drug that is used to treat severe pain comes from cone snails.
• According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), around 70% of cancer medications are based on nature.

Human-driven extinction

• According to a 2019 report published by IPBES, around 1 million animal and plant species are currently estimated to be threatened with extinction.
• Experts say species are disappearing 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than the normal rate of extinction and that humans are to blame.
• “The two things that threaten biodiversity the most at the moment are overharvesting and land conversion.
• Since 1990, around 420 million hectares of forest — an area almost the size of the European Union — has been lost — turned into farmland and cleared for other uses.
• Growing carbon dioxide levels are leading to increased ocean acidification, bleaching corals, and destroying vast habitats. Rising temperatures and unsustainable harvesting are also pushing some plant species to the edge of extinction.

Traditional medicine

• The loss of biodiversity is making it more difficult to discover new medications, it is also affecting how communities access traditional medicine.
• An estimated 4 billion people still rely primarily on natural remedies to heal themselves — whether it’s using latex from fig trees to treat intestinal parasites in the Amazon or neem oil to treat skin disorders in India.

The future of drug discovery:

• Scientists are looking to chemicals produced by sponges to provide treatment for cancers, but it is more complex than simply finding and examining single species.
• If we lose biodiversity, we’re losing access to molecules that we know nothing about. And some of those molecules might be compounds that would save the life of one of our children from an infectious disease, from cancer.”

Fishing Industry: India and Sri Lanka Need a Boost

The neglect of the fishing industry by India and Sri Lanka has resulted in an ongoing dispute over fishing rights in the Palk Strait. Developing the fishing industry could help resolve the conflict and boost the economies of both countries.

What is Blue Economy?

• Origin of the concept: Gunter Pauli’s book, “The Blue Economy: 10 Years, 100 Innovations, 100 million jobs” (2010) brought the Blue Economy concept into prominence.
• A project to find the best nature-inspired and sustainable technologies: Blue Economy began as a project to find 100 of the best nature-inspired technologies that could affect the economies of the world. While sustainably providing basic human needs potable water, food, jobs, and habitable shelter.
• Inclusive approach and objective: This is envisaged as the integration of Ocean Economy development with the principles of social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and innovative, dynamic business models
• Environment-friendly maritime infrastructure: It is the creation of environment-friendly infrastructure in the ocean because larger cargo consignments can move directly from the mothership to the hinterland through inland waterways, obviating the need for trucks or railways

Indo-Sri Lankan dispute over fishing rights in Palk Strait

• Maritime boundary agreement: The maritime boundary agreements signed in 1974 and 1976 allowed fishermen of both nations to fish in each other’s waters as they traditionally did.
• Absence of physical demarcation: Lack of physical demarcation of maritime boundaries resulted in Indian fishermen encroaching into Sri Lankan waters during the civil war.
• Rising conflicts: The Sri Lankan fishing community sought to reclaim their rights after the end of hostilities, leading to conflict with Indian fishers. Sri Lankan Navy’s intervention has resulted in arrests and even fatal shootings of Indian fishermen.

Neglect of the fishing industry by India and Sri Lanka

• India’s marine fishery: India’s marine fishery has been dominated by the artisanal sector, which can afford only small sailboats or canoes to fish for subsistence.
• Lack of investment: India’s fisheries are being transformed into a commercial enterprise, but lack of investment in deepwater fleet results in most fishing taking place in coastal waters, leading to competition with neighboring countries.
• Underexploited resources: Rich resources in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone remain underexploited, with much of the catch from India’s fishing grounds taken away by better-equipped fishing fleets of other Indo-Pacific countries indulging in illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing.
• Growing tensions: Neglect of the fishing industry has resulted in dwindling fish stocks, rising fuel costs, and growing tensions between India and Sri Lanka.

Development of the fishing industry

• China: China has mobilized its fishing industry to meet the rising demand for protein in the Chinese diet and is now a fishery superpower.
• India: India needs to invest in a deepwater fleet to exploit rich fishing grounds in its Exclusive Economic Zone and compete with other countries in the Indo-Pacific region.
• India must focus on modernization: India should focus on mechanization and modernization of fishing vessels, developing deep-water fishing fleets, building a DWF fleet around the mother ship concept, and developing modern fishing harbors.

PM Matsya Sampada Yojana

• PM Matsya Sampada Yojana is a scheme launched by the Government of India in 2020, to boost the fisheries sector in the country. The scheme has a total outlay of Rs. 20,050 crores and is implemented over a period of five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25. The scheme is focused on four key areas of intervention, which include:

1. Development of infrastructure and modernization of the fisheries sector: This involves the creation of new fishing harbors, fish landing centers, cold chain facilities, and other related infrastructure.
2. Fisheries management and regulatory framework: This involves strengthening the regulatory framework for fisheries and aquaculture, promoting sustainable fishing practices, and conserving marine biodiversity.
3. Fisheries post-harvest operations and value chain: This involves promoting the processing and value addition of fish and fishery products and improving market access for fishermen and fish farmers.
4. Aquaculture development: This involves promoting the development of inland fisheries and aquaculture, including the creation of new fish farms, and supporting the adoption of modern technologies for fish farming.

Conclusion

• Neglect of the fishing industry by India and Sri Lanka has resulted in an ongoing dispute over fishing rights in the Palk Strait. Developing the fishing industry could help resolve the conflict and boost the economies of both countries. The government’s Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana could be used to form an Indo-Sri Lankan Fishing Corporation to provide a huge boost to the fishing industries of both nations and remove an unwanted irritant in bilateral relations.